Thursday, May 20, 2010

Disney World Recap (part 1)



My perfectionism got the best of me and delayed my Disney World post for three weeks. I was hoping for a detailed day-by-day recap which I never found the time to deliver. Therefore here's the cliff notes version with my three favorite pics from each day. We drove down on Saturday, April 25 and spent that night in a nearby Motel 6, only $30! We went to Downtown Disney for a few hours that night as we couldn't wait to get into the Disney mood. The next morning we headed over to our "real" hotel, the beautiful, old Mexico style Coronado Springs Disney resort. After check-in, we took the Disney bus to Magic Kingdom. We were finally here!

The fountain in the lobby of our resort, Coronado Springs.
I was thrilled that Braewyn's fear of the Chick-Fil-A cow didn't transfer to Pooh Bear.

My self-taken photo at Planet Hollywood. I designated this as our official 10th anniversary dinner. I love you, Matthew!

On Monday (day 2), we spent the day at Hollywood Studios. I had never been at this park and found it very classy and that day not very crowded!

We all were excited to find the new Toy Story Mania ride and it met our expectations. A bonus was meeting Woody and Buzz. Philip and Braewyn make such cute toys on Andy's bed.

All of Hollywood Studios lets you feel like you're a movie star! Do these toys come in the cereal box?

I think the Star Wars simulator ride was Philip's favorite of the day. Disney does an awesome job of creating an atmosphere from the moment you get in line for all the main rides to the gift shop that awaits you after exiting the ride. Full submersion = money leaving your pockets without flinching.

Day 3 of our trip was spent at Epcot Center, my favorite park. This park feels the largest to me and so we only managed to see all of Future World and a bit of the World Showcase area. We knew we'd spend one of our extra days here again visiting all the other "countries" (we had a 6 day pass to see four parks one day each, with a day back to our two favorites).

Philip and I both loved the crash test dummy simulation ride, "Test Track", but no pictures to show for it. My second favorite was the trademark Spaceship Earth (you know, the big silver ball Epcot is known for!). I remember riding it in 1990 with my parents. Since then they've added this cool interactive feature with touch-screen monitors in the seats. At the beginning of the ride, your picture is taken and then at the end of the ride you get to design your future. Yes, I choose to have a self-cleaning house and new clothes presented to me every day!
We ate lunch in "China". I enjoy speaking to the employees as they are all native to the country represented. They come as part of the Disney program: come work at Disney world and experience American life for one year. This sweet waitress had been in America for 3 days! Culture shock, but another waitress had been here for 10 months and they all live together in apartments.
The fireworks show at Epcot and Magic Kingdom are both so worth staying late for. Lights, music and smoke! I laughed to myself because Disney is very concerned with being "green". All that goes up in smoke literally as the air pollution is palpable by 10pm. Maybe it's some kind of environmentally-friendly smoke, right?

Friday, May 07, 2010

Braewyn's New Phrase

Not sure if I should laugh or scream. Braewyn's newest favorite phrase is "I can't." It's in a dire tone of voice but used for very much non-dire situations.

Me: Braewyn, please keep the dominoes downstairs with the other game pieces.

Braewyn: I can't.

Me: Yes, you need to.

Braewyn: Ok.

There have been other far sillier scenarios but that was just the latest.

Oh and her second most used phrase is the old stand-by, "Why?" I don't want to fault her for being inquisitive so I just answer the why's. I think it went on for five why's earlier this morning. Hey, she's learning and gaining reasoning skills, right? :)

Thursday, May 06, 2010

My 3-Year-Old Princess

I've mentioned here before that upon finding out I was having a girl when pregnant with Braewyn, I decided I wouldn't buy into the Disney Princess craze. Well, you might know how that went... Braewyn adores Sleeping Beauty only from the image of her on products. We've never even seen the movie. The one good aspect is that if you ask Braewyn if she's a princess, she'll say, "No, I'm just Braewyn." At least, she's not a diva!

Well, last week we let her dreams come true... a week at Disney World and a chance to meet her favorite princess and all the others too. Matthew and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on April 15 and Braewyn turned 3 on May 2. We decided to roll it all into one and head to Orlando for a week of fun. We had a ball and it was the vacation I dreamed it would be. I'll be posting day by day photos of our trip, but since this post is to give God the glory for our precious daughter, here are a few recapping her life and my favorite pics of her from Disney.


Our sweet Braewyn at a month old.


Her 1st birthday.


Her 2nd birthday.


Braewyn on her 3rd birthday.


So proud to raise those 3 fingers!


With my Grandma and Grandpa Diemer (Mom's parents). We stopped at their house for two nights after our week at Disney.


Opening up a present with Philip and my Aunt Liz and Aunt Cathy.


Already in love with the dollhouse my parents gave her. It was mine and I totally forgot that they still had it! One oldschool dollhouse!


Meeting Sleeping Beauty and feeling quite bashful.


Reaching for change in our hotel lobby fountain.


Chatting away with Snow White probably about how great it was to meet Sleeping Beauty!